Jaguars hire Mark Lamping as team president

Lamping spent 13 years as the St. Louis Cardinals team president

They brought him in to lead the project for the teams’ new stadium, and while Mark Lamping worked as the president and CEO of what is now called MetLife Stadium, where the Jets and Giants play, he had a close view of incredible football success.

Since he started in 2008, he’s seen two AFC championship games for the New York Jets and a Super Bowl championship for the Giants earlier this month.

For Lamping, it highlighted just how much he missed working for a team.

With an opportunity to work for the Jaguars and his contract nearing its end with MetLife Stadium, Lamping decided it was time.

“We’ve been able to achieve some very significant things in a short amount of time,” Lamping said. “I knew that this job had a start and an end. As much as [Giants owner] John Mara and [Jets owner] Woody [Johnson] would have liked that I stay on long-term, I really felt a very strong desire to hopefully stay in the NFL and do it with a team. … I would love to be a part of an organization that can bring a Super Bowl championship to Jacksonville.”

Jaguars owner Shahid Khan hired Lamping as the second team president in franchise history and the first since 1997. Khan offered the job to Lamping on Saturday, and Lamping will oversee non-football operations. Both he and general manager Gene Smith will report directly to Khan, with Smith handling on-the-field matters.

“Success is about what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are,” Khan said. “Me personally, I don’t have the experience Mark does ... and I think he’s going to be an absolutely wonderful addition in supplementing the weaknesses I have, and frankly the Jaguars organization has on the business side.”

Lamping had a five-year contract with MetLife Stadium and is leaving after his fourth year. In his first statement about hiring Lamping, Khan thanked the Jets and Giants owners for making the hiring possible.

“In many ways, he helped to guide the building of our stadium,” Jets owner Woody Johnson and Giants owners Steve Tisch and John Mara said in a statement. “From the onset, as home to two NFL franchises, our stadium project was unlike any other and Mark’s guidance and business expertise were critical to our success.”

He will begin work with the Jaguars on Feb. 27.

The Jaguars have only had one other team president in the franchise’s history. David Seldin held the position in the early years of the organization. He resigned in late 1997 to take a job with the organization that eventually bought the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, of which he then became president.

No other front-office changes accompanied the hiring, though that could come later as Lamping familiarizes himself with the organization and its needs.

Lamping was the president of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals for 13 years. Lamping grew up a Cardinals fan and considered becoming that team’s president a dream job.

He started on Sept. 1, 1994, in the middle of a labor dispute. The Cardinals had losing records in 1994 and 1995, when Tony La Russa was hired, but made a playoff appearance and lost in the playoffs in 1996.

Since 2000, they have been one of the most successful franchises in baseball, making two World Series appearances in Lamping’s tenure. They won one, and were swept by the Boston Red Sox in another.

Lamping drew comparisons between the Jaguars now and the Cardinals in 1994. He emphasized the need to turn the Jaguars into a regional brand, not just one that connects with Jacksonville.

“They have focused on building the Cardinal brand throughout the Midwest and as a result they have about 40 percent of their fans that travel for regional markets that come to St. Louis to enjoy Cardinal games,” Lamping said. “So we need to start at the center of the target and make sure we’re very, very strong in the Jacksonville community but have a very focused and concentrated effort to develop the regional markets outside Jacksonville.”

Asked about the possibility of moving training camp, which the Jaguars hold in Jacksonville, to another location, or playing preseason games in another city in order to have a presence elsewhere in the region, both Khan and Lamping said that would be something to discuss with Smith and head coach Mike Mularkey.

“I want this to be the best front office,” Khan said. “As Mark gets to know really the people, the operation and obviously I’ll be supporting him in any way I can, we want to be the best and I think we’re going to do whatever it takes to do so, whether it’s processes, practices or people. This is maybe the first step in a thousand-mile journey.”

@ Steve D Jacksonville was awarded the franchise and more than one group wanted control, It was the city (citizens) that was most responsible, formulating a "new stadium deal" so sweet that the NFL had no choice but to choose us! Everything was in place and the proposal was based on the municiple commitment, NOT the Weavers.

@ Jim B I disagree with 90% of your assessments on the Jags.
1) while a strong owner the organization is NOT effective, see record last year, we are declining per GS being GM
2) These quality coaches? They are unproven, rookies and a dismal hire considering the other opportunities out there
3) Talented players? This is a farm team, simply the worst roster in the NFL.
4) While I agree the city is extremely supportive, the fan base is low in number and dwindling...like in the movie Patton: "Americans like winners."

Now, the hire. I see two angles, one being his experience leveraging the NFL team's existance in a city to better position the team's bottom line via stadium deal, ect. This is not a good omen for Jacksonville, sorry. Whether they stay or leave it is greedy. The second angle may be, to a lesser extent, for expanding the fan base as advertised. Way less believable.
My take, this team is moving! It is not a matter of if, but when.